Wednesday

Only about 10 people testified at Tuesday's Public Utility Commission hearing, but most asked PECO to focus on clean energy and a more efficient power grid.

Renewable energy and power grid improvements dominated much of the testimony in a PECO rate increase hearing Tuesday night in Newtown Township.

PECO has proposed an electric rate increase that could add up to approximately 3.2 percent more for the average residential customer at the start of next year. As part of the approval process, PECO must hold a handful of Public Utility Commission hearings across its coverage area.

Most of the testimony at the hearing at Bucks County Community College included urging PECO and the commission to push toward efficiency upgrades to the power grid and implementing more solar, wind and other renewable energy resources.

“The dirty electricity that PECO puts out — or that PECO pays for — is our region’s biggest driver of climate change and increasingly severe weather,” said John Magee, of the renewable energy activist group Earth Quaker Action Team.

Magee, who said he was a retired educator who lives in Warminster, said the group wants the Exelon Company to use renewable energy for 20 percent of its power by 2025.

W. Craig Williams, an attorney representing PECO at the hearings, said the company has supported numerous programs and legislation implementing more reliance on solar power.

PECO spokeswoman Afia Ohene-Frempong added in an email the company supports state House Bill 1799 to increase renewable energy production through utility company initiatives.

She noted several other clean energy pushes including PECO's role as “an active participant in the Pennsylvania Solar Future Project” led by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection and its "viability map” online for customers planning to connect to solar power in the future.

Ryan Leitner, an EQAT campaign organizer, said the organization is glad PECO is supporting renewable energy, but PECO is still “dragging its feet in terms of making meaningful action” on clean energy.

House Bill 1799 "is simply window-dressing while PECO avoids fundamental shifts towards solar and jobs it must take, given the urgency of climate change and inequality,” Leitner said in email Wednesday.

PECO's rate change must be approved by the state PUC, which considers whether the increases could unfairly affect impoverished communities as part of its decision.

PECO filed its request for the increase in March. PECO's filings say the increase could bring in $82 million — about 2.2 percent — more in revenues if fully implemented. PECO’s filings add that savings from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed by President Donald Trump in December are factored into its rate increase request.

While the average residential customer could pay about $40 more in 2019, commercial customers could pay up to $132 a year more and industrial customers would pay nearly $200 more a year.

In his opening statement Tuesday night, Williams said the company’s last base-rate increase was in 2015, and that “overall sales levels have remained relatively flat.”

“The additional funds we have requested will allow us to continue to invest in our system and provide, safe, reliable service to our customers,” Williams added.

The company plans to issue a rate reduction totaling $68 million to all customers regardless of the outcome of the rate hearings, Ohene-Frempong added Wednesday. State regulations prevent PECO from issuing the rebate while a rate increase hearing is happening, she said.

Peter Meyer, a New Hope resident who buys electricity from a third-party supplier, said the lower rate he pays is an indicator that PECO could save money by “improving its distribution system.”

Meyer is president of the E. P. Systems Group, an environmental and economic policy consulting firm based in State College, Centre County, and said he has over 30 years of experience consulting with state agencies and energy companies. Meyer is also on the New Hope borough council. However, he said he was not testifying on behalf of the borough or any group.

The PUC's Office of Administrative Law will hold another hearing from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 14 at 801 Market St. in Philadelphia.

Administrative Law Judge F. Joseph Brady said hearings between Aug. 22 and 24 also are expected in Harrisburg to call on any witness who has submitted written testimony for cross examination. Assuming no settlement is reached in the case, the commission’s law office will make a recommendation in October, and the commission will issue a final decision by Dec. 28.

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